###### [[Why the Phrase Late Capitalism Is Suddenly Everywhere]] **Covers**:: [[Communism]], [[Wealth Inequality]], [[Capitalism]] **source**:: [Why the Phrase 'Late Capitalism' Is Suddenly Everywhere - The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/05/late-capitalism/524943/) - Late [[capitalism]] is a catachall for the indiginities of a [[economy]] full of [[Wealth Inequality]] and rampant [[Consumerism]]. [^1] - The [[Marxism|marxist]] thinkers that invented this term thought of it as an age of multinational corporations, international communication, and international finance, [^2] not as a time indicative of a coming [[Revolution]] [^3] - Some thought that late [[capitalism]] would blunt the [[working class]]'s potential for [[revolution]] as the [[economy]] dominated their lives [^4] - [[Bernie Sanders]] fight for fifteen campaign pushed 19 states to raise their minimum wage [^5] - Late [[capitalism]] see more usage as times become worse and people look for a solution. Late promises and end to the great evil of [[capitalism]]. [^6] [^1]: “Late [[capitalism]],” in its current usage, is a catchall phrase for the indignities and absurdities of our contemporary [[economy]], with its yawning inequality and super-powered corporations and shrinking [[middle class]]. But what is “late [[capitalism]],” really? Where did the phrase come from, and why did so many people start using it all of a sudden? [^2]: For Mandel, “late [[capitalism]]” denoted the economic period that started with the end of World [[War]] II and ended in the early 1970s, a time that saw the rise of multinational corporations, mass communication, and international finance. [^3]: Roberts said that the term’s current usage departs somewhat from its original meaning. “It’s not this sense that things are getting so bad that the [[revolution]] is going to come,” he told me, “but rather that we see the ligaments of the international system that socialists will be able to seize and use.” [^4]: Theodor Adorno argued that “late [[capitalism]]” might lead not to socialism, but away from it, by blunting the proletariat’s potential for [[revolution]]. “The economic process continues to perpetuate domination over human beings,” he said in [a speech](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/adorno/1968/late-[[capitalism]].htm) on late [[capitalism]] in 1968. (If only he could have seen the Jenner-Pepsi ad.) [^5]: the Sanders campaign found real, unexpected traction; the Fight for $15 helped convince 19 states and cities to boost their minimum wages [up to $15 an hour](http://www.nelp.org/content/uploads/PR-Minimum-Wage-Increases-New-Year-2016-2017.pdf). [^6]: Finally, “late [[capitalism]]” gestures to the potential for [[revolution]], whether because the robots end up taking all the jobs or because the proletariat finally rejects all this nonsense. A “late” period always comes at the end of something, after all. “It has the constant referent to [[revolution]],” Roberts said. “‘Late [[capitalism]]’ necessarily says, ‘This is a stage we’re going to come out of at some point, whereas ‘neoliberalism’ doesn’t say that, ‘[Shit is fucked up and bullshit](https://www.flickr.com/photos/scottlynchnyc/6301064446)’ doesn’t say that. It hints at a sort of optimism amongst a post-Bernie left, the young left online. Something of the revolutionary horizon of classical [[Marxism]].” It does all this with a certain concision, erudition, even beauty. It’s ominous and knowing, brainy and pissed-off. “Now is a crazy political time,” Yeselson said. “It’s Trump. It’s Brexit. It’s whatever is going on in [[France]]. Why talk about [[capitalism]] when nothing seems to be shaken up? But now things are shaken up. Let’s allude to the big, giant, totalistic system that is underneath everything. And let’s give it more than a hint of foreboding. Late [[capitalism]]. _Late_ is so pregnant.”